Alias: All the Time in the World

Jack: "You beat death, Arvin. But you couldn't beat me."Ending a long-running, complex series can be a losing proposition. No matter what they did, it was going to make somebody unhappy. But personally, even though I was mildly disappointed about a few things, I think they did it right. It was about Sydney, Jack, Irina, and Sloane. And they have always been the core of the story.They

Alias: Reprisal

Tom: "I wish there were more time. I would have asked you out."Rachel: "I would have said yes."No more Prophet Five. We're down to our core characters again. And that's as it should be.The writers did exactly the right thing. I never cared about Prophet Five, anyway. They were set up as a continuing villain when the writers had more time to develop them. Once the series was cancelled, they

Alias: No Hard Feelings

Vaughn: "You know, it's funny. It's the first time I felt Jack accepted me."Dixon: "Or else he manufactured a very elaborate scheme to postpone your wedding to his daughter."This episode just flew by. I thought I was ready for The End, but maybe I'm not. And maybe they should have been doing stuff like this sooner.Another blast from the past. It was so much fun seeing Sydney, Vaughn, and

Alias: I See Dead People

Vaughn: "Sydney and I never went to Cartagena. And just for the record, you're a terrible kisser."So I guess Anna Espinosa wasn't the woman on Page 47, after all.Not that I mind, because it's almost like revisiting SD-6. We're back to Sloane as the bad guy. Back to Sydney as the double agent determined to bring him down. I really haven't been much into the Anna/Sydney identical cousins

Alias: 30 Seconds

Sloane: "It's not an obsession. It's faith."We're clearly heading for a Rambaldi end game in the series finale, and hallelujah.I got the feeling early in this episode that Nadia wasn't long for this world, so subconsciously, I must have put a couple of things together. Like, for one -- in order to make a Rambaldi end game exciting and fun, Sloane would have to be evil again. For two, love

Alias: There's Only One Sydney Bristow

Rachel: "Uh, guys. Who's Rambaldi?"I am so enjoying the way they are revisiting the old "Alias," with the return of my favorite characters as well as some extreme and familiar plot twists.Will has always been a favorite of mine, and it was especially lovely to see him undercover with Sydney again, bad French accents and all. Although I did spend most of the episode worried that his head

Alias: Maternal Instinct

Moreau: "I'm sure she'll be a wonderful parent to her own child. She has two such lovely role models."Spy Mom and Spy Dad, together again. Oh, Irina, how I've missed you. I dare say Jack and Irina together are "Alias" at its best. It was so much fun to see all three of them undercover together. And Sydney going into labor during a clandestine mission? Had to happen.Loved Jack taking the

Alias: S.O.S.

Weiss: "One more thing. Next time, just call."It was fast-paced, it was amusing, it had everyone committing treason and Marshall in disguise, so I watched most of this one with a big smile on my face. Well, okay, I wasn't as thrilled when it segued into medical ickiness, but still.The Langley mission was standard "Alias" fun. I particularly liked Eric Weiss coming to their rescue, Marshall

Alias: The Horizon

Vaughn: "I'm back."Sydney: "What took you so long?"Vaughn: "Traffic light out on Venice."That was it? Is that all the Vaughn we're getting? Mutated flashbacks? This episode was more frustrating than romantic for me, sort of like a surreal clip show. Recreating all of those Sydney/Vaughn scenes couldn't have been easy. I remember all of them, of course: Vaughn proposing, Vaughn dying, the

Alias: Bob

Jack: "What's a little treason between old friends?"I love Sark to bits. And yes, I prefer him evil. But let's face it -- they could bring him back and let him read the phone book, and he'd still be fun.I thought at first that he knew who Rachel was, and had deliberately targeted her for something. But how cute was it that he was just attracted to her? Who knew Sark was human enough to

Alias: Fait Accompli

Marshall: "Is anyone else having deja vu here? I mean, first Sloane is good, then he's bad, now he's good again?"Poor Sloane can't win for losing. He confessed to Jack. He proved that he had truly reformed. He helped take down Dean. And he immediately found himself back in solid with the bad guys. I actually felt sorry for him. At least Nadia is closer to a cure and Dean is certainly no

Alias: Solo

Rachel: "I'm gonna put on my strappy shoes and my teeny dress, and I'm gonna try."This one was fun. I laughed a lot. It had a sort of "Buffy"-like zing to the dialogue. (Yes, I know it was written by Jeffrey Bell.) I hadn't even given a thought to Rachel's family, but of course they would be in danger from Gordon Dean. Rachel appears to have had a good childhood with a normal, loving

Alias: Out of the Box

Sydney: "This isn't an abduction. It's a rescue."Usually, I have some glimmer of an idea of what's going on, but this frozen guy thing has me at a complete loss.At least we now know who's in the box: Dr. Aldo Desantis, played by "Pretender" alumni Patrick Bachau. What happened to Renee's father, then? Was it doubling? The immunosuppressants hint that it was a brain transplant, which takes

Alias: Mockingbird

Rachel: "A week ago, I had a good job working for the CIA. Now I have the truth."Just another day at the office. But I'm liking Rachel a little more now.The Sydney/Rachel parallels continue, with Rachel determined to completely debrief without stopping for rest or food, just as Sydney did in the pilot episode. We also had some Alias 101, with Sydney lecturing Rachel on becoming someone

Alias: The Shed

Rachel: "If you're CIA, we're on the same side."So Rachel was SD-Sixed, just like Sydney. That makes sense. Now we know why she was working for Dean. Unfortunately, unlike Sydney -- who walked right back into SD-6 and made it work -- Rachel blew it. Yes, she's just a technie, not a field agent, but still.Most of this episode felt like a Rachel Gibson/Tom Grace bonding exercise, and I do

Alias: ...1...

Sydney: "It's a funny thing about pregnancy. Hormones. Whew."So who's in the cryo freeze? Probably not Walt Disney. And white hair means it probably isn't Vaughn. If Renee stole the body, it must have something to do with Prophet Five. Is it Bill Vaughn? Milo Rambaldi? It could be anyone who's died in the past four years of the series, couldn't it? Oh, my god, please don't let it be

Alias: Prophet Five

Marshall: "I mean, we're friends. We do lunch."I don't like this.Dan said halfway through that he felt they were yanking his chain, and I think he's right. When Lehman was talking about how the people who were after the book would stop at nothing to silence Vaughn, I thought, aha! The new bad guys have to think that Lehman and Vaughn are dead, or they'll never stop looking for them. And

Alias: Before the Flood

Irina: "Consider my life an object lesson. If you don't want to end up like Jack and me, tell Sydney the truth."Holy cliffhanger, Batman! "Alias" does a season-ending cliffhanger better than just about anyone. The last minute made me literally jump out of my seat. Is Vaughn dead? And if Michael Vaughn isn't Michael Vaughn, who the hell is he? Let's recap. Early on, Irina said she knew

Alias: Search and Rescue

Marshall: "So what you're saying is, a large red ball plus contaminated water equals a city full of homicidal maniacs."The whole "Rescue Irina" sequence and the scenes in the plane were just terrific, as well as touching. I especially loved the parallel of Irina being buried, as Sydney was earlier this season, and Irina realizing with a shock who Nadia was without being told. It sure looked

Alias: The Descent

Yelena: "I'd heard you reformed."Sloane: "I suppose I've been born again."Irina is alive! I knew it even before the Lena Olin casting spoiler hit the net, though. What I'm finding hard to comprehend is Jack's certainty that he killed her. Jack isn't easily fooled. I thought for awhile that we might just get Irina in flashback, but if Dixon saw her, she's really alive. And isn't that